Subsurface characterization of the Apulia Carbonate Platform in the foothills of the Apennines in Abruzzi region (central Italy)

The Apulia Carbonate Platform is exposed in the Maiella Mountains, the Gargano Promontory and in other parts of the Puglia region (Murge and Salento); and has been also documented in the Adriatic offshore by both seismic and well data. The present investigation was an effort to characterize the subsurface architecture; to identify and interpret the structural features affecting the Jurassic to Miocene carbonate strata of the Apulia Carbonate platform lying beneath the Plio-Pliestocene sediments in the Abruzzi region of central Italy. Scanned copies of old seismic and well log datasets were digitized then correlated using SMT Kingdom Suite for seismic interpretation and the reconstruction of structural maps. The structural interpretation in the area was based primarily on the main seismic reflectors. The main structures of the area consist of two seismic horizons, which are the top of the Apulia Carbonate Platform (top Miocene) and the base of Turonian carbonates. Cretaceous and Late Miocene to Early Pliocene normal faults, both dipping towards NE, were recognized in the central and eastern part of the study area. Whereas in the western part, contractional structures, such as folds and low to high angle reverse faults, were recognized. 3-D structural analysis in SMT Kingdom Suite suggests that the Apulia Platform might have experienced SW-NE extension in Cretaceous and Upper Miocene to Lower Pliocene times; the the contractional structures that recognized in the western part were probably active in the Pliocene time, during the Apennine foreland fold and thrust belt development. Further precision in recreating the Cenozoic geometry of the Platform is possible with the help of additional data coming from recently acquired high resolution seismic reflection profiles and wells drilled to these depths. A velocity model was absent and such data could greatly improve the correlation of the two datasets in SMT Kingdom and re-establish the overall structural model in terms of meter scaled depth.